Heavy Steinway actions/David A.

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Meyer" <cmpiano@attbi.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: June 03, 2003 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: Heavy Steinway actions/David A.


> It was my understanding that union problems for 2 yrs caused the Steinway
> family to sell out to CBS since their best techs had left by that time.
The
> "CBS pianos" were sometimes returned and replaced by a "rebuilt unit" by
the
> music directors that had purchased the new unit.
>
> Carl Meyer Assoc Ptg


Well, perhaps. But I spent a week in the Steinway factory not all that long
after CBS bought out the Steinway family. Throughout the factory I could
see no evidence of any serious effort to even maintain, let alone upgrade,
either the facility or the equipment except for those projects which had
been or were being done by CBS. It was my observation that both the
facility and the manufacturing equipment had received only the barest
minimum of attention for many, many years. Not even the most dedicated
workforce can produce a good product with obsolete and/or poorly maintained
tools, equipment and machinery.

While I understand that an overly strong union can be a problem, it was
more my sense that under CBS management the factory and the workforce was
struggling to overcome some decades of inattention. For the most part the
workers I met and worked with struck me as men and women who were trying to
do a good job in spite of the limitations under which they had been working
for so many years. They seemed mostly pleased that now more was being
expected of them. (OK, I didn't meet everybody and it is probable that
those who couldn't adjust to the new management had already
left--voluntarily or otherwise.) But, I came away thinking that "the union"
had taken the blame for some period of inept management.

Whatever else may be said of CBS and subsequent owners and
management--without them there would no longer be a Steinway & Sons.

Del